From: Pat Martens IBCLC, MSc(Community Health), Doctoral Student, LLL
([log in to unmask]), near Winnipeg, Canada

A Lactnet note from yesterday indicated that one physician had
contraindicated breastfeeding after HELLP. Here's an anecdotal case
study.
Primiparous woman gave birth a year ago, and was diagnosed as critically
ill due to HELLP. She was in ICU for two days postbirth, and says she
hardly remembers anything. However, she was asked by the nurse whether
or not she wanted to breastfeed later, and said yes. As a result, an
electric pump was supplied, and she did pump a few times on the first
two days (though her recollection is vague). While talking to her today,
she mentioned that while her platelets were low, on the first two days,
she was pumping blood along with the colostrum. Meanwhile, baby was in
intermediate care nursery with Strep B and meningitis. He was being
bottlefed. After mother felt she could handle breastfeeding, baby was
given the opportunity. She says her milk was a little slow in increasing
in volume, so she was using an SNS with EBM and ABM mixture for about
three days. When I first saw her, about two weeks later, she was
breastfeeding well, except for a baby who was not latching on well
(typical nipple confusion - not opening mouth wide enough), and she was
experiencing extremely sore nipples (both due to the latch and due to a
yeast infection). She did manage to correct both situations, and happily
nursed her baby for almost a year. No physician ever counselled her to
wean due to having HELLP. Her birth took place in a large teaching
hospital - the only thing the mother regretted was the fact that the
baby was given bottles for the first few days rather than using
alternate feeding methods. Otherwise, she looks upon the experience in
the hospital as being very supportive of her continuing to breastfeed.

pat martens